Hands-on with Pleo the dinobot

Watch out Mark Tilden, we have witnessed the future, and your family of robotic creatures is about to get totally shown up — for a pretty steep price, of course. By now you’re probably well aware of the heir to the robotoy throne that we’re referring to, Ugobe’s $350 Pleo dinobot (or life form, as they like to call it) dropping November 1st. Well we finally got a little face time with this sensor-laden blast from the past, and we’re happy to report that the frustrating delays our Jurassic pal has suffered seem to be well worth it, as the model we saw behaved and performed almost flawlessly. Interestingly enough, although the components are quite tough (as evidenced when our demonstrator violently snapped its back and legs with no ill effects), Pleo’s tactile rubber skin and puppy-like cuteness tend to make people treat it much gentler than necessary. Still, considering that these will ship with a completely hackable OS, we’re sure that there will be no shortage of baby dino snuff films up on YouTube in no time. For more, um, appropriate viewing matter, check out the gallery below, and then hit the jump to watch three of these little guys do their best impression of a Budweiser commercial…